If at first you don't succeed, slash your price and try, try again. That's the thinking now being applied by Caavo, the company which launched a new-age universal TV device back in February. I reviewed it and liked many things about it, but I also complained about its $400 price, difficult setup, and many quirks, including a lack of HDR support. Someone over at Caavo HQ was listening. Less than eight months later, that bulky $400 Caavo has vanished.

A rectangular black box that sits in your entertainment center: It sure does look like another streaming box competitor, but it's important to understand that the Caavo Control Center isn't that at all. It's a universal remote control that takes a wholly different approach than those used by Logitech. This is actually Caavo's second run at this concept. The first was a wildly innovative (and pricy) crowd-funded system designed to be NORAD for your entertainment system; you plugged everything into the Caavo, then controlled it all with its custom remote. With eight HDMI ports, two USB ports, and more, the $400 device was clad in steel and decked out in fancy wood, built to be an eye-catching showstopper. The system, which launched in very limited quantities in early 2018, met mostly with resistance and confusion, which sent Caavo back to the drawing board to come up with a more approachable and affordable concept.

Caavo's first shot at a smart universal remote (and the hub to match) was clever, but expensive -- at $399, you had to be a serious enthusiast to enjoy it. You might not have those qualms this time around. The company has unveiled the Control Center, a combination remote and hub that includes much of the intelligence with a $100 up-front price (more on that later). It gets there in part by cutting many of the bordering-on-overkill features you saw in the original hardware. Gone are the wood panels, the hidden browser to sign you into services, an infrared adapter and half of the eight HDMI inputs.

The Caavo universal TV control system, which is aimed at simplifying home TV setups through machine vision, is set to ship on February 14th, The Verge reports. Initially planned to ship last June, the $399 system boasts the ability to control and navigate up to eight devices -- say, for example, a Roku, an Apple TV, a DVR and an Xbox One -- removing the need for a bunch of different remotes, for the most part. It even offers voice control so you can say, "Watch Bob's Burgers," and it will start playing it through one of your streaming devices. You can also set the system to play certain services, like Hulu, on a specific device, like your Fire TV. There are a few downsides to Caavo. One, it doesn't support HDR, though that could change in the future.

What to do about all those set-top boxes piling up in the living room? Caavo wants to be the master box to run Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire and others. DANA POINT -- Remember the universal remote control, the device that controls all of your various remotes? Caavo, introduced at the Code Media conference here, proposes to be a master box for all those growing set-top boxes and devices in the home-- Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, as well as the cable box. The $399 unit will ship in the fall, the company says.